Goldeneye is great from start to finish
Tomorrow Never dies. Pretty memorable for the actions sequences and "I'm just a professional doing a job!" Devolves into a straight action movie by the last 20 minutes.
The World is Not Enough- After the pre-title sequence it runs out of steam for me.
By the third movie it's pretty clear that Broccoli and Wilson are trying HARD to corner the American market with an American actress as a Bond girl
You have Teri Hatcher, Denise Richards and Halle Berry.
It's a pretty interesting record for Daniel Craig in that he had NO American actresses as a Bond girl too. I just thought that was an interesting fact IMO.
Back to Brosnan
Die Another Day. The pre-title sequence was great minus Madonna. The movie could have had a more interesting 2nd act after Cuba but they went full campy with the Ice palace and giant laser in the sky.
To be honest I'm mostly onboard with DAD until the bit on the plane at the end, but Graves in a robot suit was the final straw for me. An ice palace is, let's be honest, very Bond. For me if we could go back and rewrite history I'd only do the following.
Lose the invisible car
Either use practical effects for the surfing or rework that scene so it works.
Use practical effects for Jinx jumping off the cliff
Get someone else to sing the theme tune*
Get someone else to play Verity*
Completely rework the final fight (why is Graves even on that plane in the first place?)
*and to be honest you could leave Madonna in, she doesn't have enough time to ruin the film.
In some respects TWINE runs out of steam
during the pre-title sequence for me. I couldn't get past how a woman has a speed boat bristling with guns moored on the Thames in the middle of London right by MI6 headquarters and NOBODY NOTICES!
I agree on the American Bond girl front as well, none of Brosnan's ladies are the equal of Natalya and Xenia and the only two who come close are Michelle Yeoh (whose awesome but who is given no personality by the script) and Rosamund Pike.
Wavesurfing with those terrible (even for 2002) waves in the background may go down as the single most laughable effects sequence in the franchise, and this is a franchise where there's a literal space battle with laser-armed EV suits. To Moonraker's credit, though, the space effects are outstanding for a Bond movie budget.
One of the things that annoys me is that we had bad CGI surfing in Escape from LA 6 years earlier, and despite having a way bigger budget, and half a decade more in technical advancement, DAD's scene manages to be worse than Escape from LA's.
But, you know what, often when I watch DAD I find myself caught up in the moment and actually get a little thrill when Bond escapes, in the same way I can suspend my disbelief that it's really Rog skiing down a mountain at the start of TSWLM.
